An album release from Jacob Brand brings out a lush array of contemporary pop undertones and an honest and genuine approach that also brings out his personality and has a unique way of blending these classic influences into his music and keeping things refreshing.
The Beyond album has layers that can be peeled back throughout its 13-track course and as you do so you get to know him a little bit more as a person and as a songwriter as the songs give you stories and take you on these little musical journeys at a time.
Now, there are more than a handful of singles that stick out for me, but I do feel like this may be a sort of concept record in a way because listening to the album from beginning to end has a lot more closure to it, and feels like that's the proper way to really soak this in.
I do absolutely love that a lot of these songs come from genuine places in real-life experience for the artist because that's very evident throughout the record's playthrough and it really gives the songs that added character that keeps the record so confluent.
The more you listen the more you get elements of indie rock, even post-punk at times, and a lot more but it all comes together and creates a certain kind of atmosphere that you can actually step into for a moment in time and forget about your own reality.
This is something I really enjoy and have actually missed in all kinds of genres of music for quite some time.
Just the ability to step into someone else's world for a bit and forget about your own is a very pleasurable thing when listening to an album.
I think I may have just been missing this in terms of albums especially because we live in such a single-based society that you don't see artists or bands releasing too many full-length albums anymore.
At least not as much as they used to.
I would love to have this album on vinyl for example so that I can sit there and stare at the back cover and listen to the songs to really soak them in.
It's nice to hear a record that does that for me again and it feels like it's a gift.
This album has a really beautiful sheen and polish to it in terms of its production and it feels almost flawless but does have little hints of looseness to it that give the songs that alive and breathing feeling as well.
Some of these songs even have a little bit of a cinematic undertone to them which I enjoyed and can picture in certain kinds of films.
There are also elements of lyrics that are descriptive so that you can picture certain things in your head as they're happening in the song. So listening to the record gives you that feeling of almost reading a book and the songs are like the chapters of the book.
This was wonderfully woven together and you can tell this was done by someone who has a real love for his craft because that comes through with every song and it kind of makes me want to see him perform live if he does that.
Jacob is the kind of artist that I feel like would bring that atmosphere with him into that live setting.
There's also the element of the energy on the record which is very dynamically balanced and helps deliver that true-to-life feeling.
I enjoyed the warmth and welcoming feeling of this record and how he in a way, wears his heart on his sleeves and gives this record his all.
Very impressive release from Jacob Brand and I feel like he's the type of artist to keep an eye out for.
Remember where you heard it first.